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The last zone in our puppy pen will always be the zone that changes the most, the play zone. The play zone is the area down the middle of your pen, between the toilet zone and the resting zone, where your puppies will play and exercise.

When we first introduce our zones, around 2 weeks of age, our puppies are too developmentally immature and they have no need of a play zone. So our whelping box was divided into a resting zone, and a toilet zone (that would eventually become our litter box).

During this week our puppies are starting to develop a habit, of going to the toilet zone to void, this will mostly be random at first, but that’s okay.

Each week our puppies will be a bit more mature, and their exercise and enrichment needs will change as they grow. So, once puppies enter the transitional stage (around week 3) and start to toddle and interact with each other, we will introduce the play zone.

So our play zone will go through the greatest changes, from not existing (whelping box) to being 1/3rd of our space (first week in the weaning pen) to the vast majority of our pen (send home week). This expanding design accomplishes a few goals.

By starting with our resting area closer to our litter box we start creating a good habit very early on. We want our puppies to learn that they need to “go somewhere” when they feel the need to void. By starting small we ensure our immature puppies can actually physically make it across our small play area to the litter box.
By starting small and expanding, we ensure our puppies developmental needs are met when they need to be met. While a 21 day old puppy is not going to be playing much, in just 3 more weeks that same puppy will be playing, and learning, a lot more. We never want to compromise our puppies developmental requirement for space to play in the name of litter box use.
By designing our area with the puppies developmental stage in mind, we can increase the odds the puppies are “right” and actually make it over to the litter box when they need to void. By starting with a small play zone, and making it larger by expanding our pen every week.

How you accomplish expanding your pen will depend on what type of pen you have. If you have a drop pin design, it’s easy to add panels to expand the pen a few feet at a time. If you are using an x pen, you can accomplish this by folding back panels and adding another pen later.

Play Zone: The Everchanging Place To Grow And Learn.